There are two factions in the coaching community with Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier leading each group. Saban is one of the leaders of the group of "grinders" made up of coaches who put in 80+ hours a week during the season to make sure they've covered every base, every angle, and talked to every recruit.
Then there are the coaches that are in the Spurrier group, I'll call them the "work smart" faction. That's the group that doesn't need 80 hours a week to feel comfortable with their game plan. They'll come in and work efficiently to iron out their game plan and move forward feeling great with the work they've done, knowing that the time they put in will put their players in the best position to succeed.
Every staff has a mix of these guys on their staff, and it would be difficult (and probably near impossible) for either group to live on the other side of the fence for a week, but that belief didn't stop the old ball coach from giving some advice to Saban on his approach. Typical Spurrier.
“I told Nick Saban one time, I said, ‘Nick, you don’t have to stay there until midnight and your teams would be just as good and win just as many,'" Spurrier told GoGamecocks.
“He said, ‘If I could do it the way you do it, I would, but I don’t feel comfortable unless I try to cover every base, every angle, be totally prepared.’" Spurrier responded with, ‘Well, that’s probably why you do it.’ When I come out there, I feel comfortable we are ready to play. We have our game plan in, going to call this, call that and so forth. Everybody is different as far as when they feel they are totally prepared.”
There's nothing out there that proves that working longer hours equals more wins. If that were the case, every coach in America would roll film and talk game plans and situations nonstop until kickoff. But Spurrier notes an important lesson he learned from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden when it comes to how work ethic translates to winning games.
“One thing in all of his books, and I have read a lot of them or most of them, he never talks about outworking his competition. He doesn’t talk about spending more hours in the film room or the meeting room. He talks about the time with his players.
“Coach Wooden, nowhere does he talk about all the hours he spent watching game film. I sort of like that.”